1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a timing control circuit which supplies driving signals to a driver for a liquid crystal panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a laptop PC (Personal Computer) includes a casing mounting a processor and a casing mounting a liquid crystal panel connected to each other via a movable structure such as a hinge member or the like. FIGS. 1A and 1B show a configuration of an ordinary laptop PC. It should be noted that the size of the components in the drawings may be enlarged or reduced, and the shape thereof modified, as appropriate. A PC 300 includes a first casing 310 and a second casing 320 connected to each other via a hinge structure or the like. The first casing 310 mounts a keyboard, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface, and so forth, which are not shown, in addition to a processor (graphic chip) 312 which generates image data. The second casing 320 mounts a liquid crystal panel 322, a gate driver 324, a source driver 326, in addition to a backlight and a driver circuit (inverter) thereof, which are not shown.
The image data generated by the processor 312 is transmitted by a transmission chip 314 to the second casing 320 side via a bus formed on an FPC (flexible printed circuit) provided within the movable structure 330 such as a hinge member. The second casing 320 includes a timing controller IC 328 which receives the image data from the transmission chip 314, and which performs timing control operation, and which converts the image data thus received into a data format suitable for the gate driver and the source driver.
[Related Art Documents]
[Patent Documents]
    [Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. H6-273788    [Patent Document 2]
Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2003-173150
As shown in FIG. 1B, the timing controller IC 328 is mounted on a printed-circuit board 329. The printed-circuit board 329 mounts peripheral circuit components for the timing controller IC 328. In addition, an input-side wiring bus BUS1 and an output-side wiring bus BUS2 are formed on the printed-circuit board 329. The input bus BUS1 receives image data from the transmission chip 314 via a connector 325. In conventional techniques, a configuration is made in which the data transmitted from the transmission chip 314 is input from the side of the printed-circuit board 329 opposite to the liquid crystal panel 322, and is output via the side thereof facing the liquid crystal panel 322. Accordingly, such an arrangement requires the printed-circuit board 329 to have a great width d due to the bus BUS1, the BUS2, and a mounting area 327 for mounting circuit components. The printed-circuit board 329 having such a great size occupies a great part of the second casing 320, leading to a difficulty in providing the second casing 320 with a reduced size. Such a problem can occur in electronic devices other than the laptop PC as well.